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Sunday, July 07, 2013

Every year my family, my mom, my brothers, their wives, their kids, their kids’ kids, my sister and anyone else who can tolerate our family tries to vacation together. The tradition started a long time ago, with Mom picking a river rafting trip in Idaho. Iain did not get to go because he had not given me a ring. Seriously. On that trip, we drew names to see who would get to pick the following year, and so on so that each of my siblings and I each got a turn to pick a trip.

My sister was first, in 1999, and she picked a dude ranch in Montana. Iain got to go on that one, because we were married. It was really fun, but I still have trauma from my trail ride and a horse named Dallas.

In 2000, for some reason, we did not go anywhere.

In 2001, my brother Doug got to pick and we went to Mexico. I was very pregnant with Ziggy, but it was a nice trip. We got the big bedroom since I could play the PG card. I can’t remember where we went, which is sad, but it was on the western coast.

Then, Ziggy died and we didn’t go anywhere for a very long time.

But, last year my brother Randy planned his trip and we all went up to Montana again. That is the Great Road Trip of 2012, which you may recall. Who could forget it?

This year? My turn. I wanted them to come here. Texas…land of plenty. Land of opportunity. Land of heat. But also, plenty of fun to be had. It needed to be near an airport, and have things for kids and for adults. Also, we needed houses…not hotels. So, I decided (with the unanimous agreement of my siblings) on Neal's Lodges in Concan. It was only a 6 hour drive for us, and after last year? Easy peasy lemon squeezie.

Turned out great. Not without it’s hitches, but we were together and nobody died.

We even made it all the way there with no roadside time outs!

We had our own pool, which was great.

Granny made homemade ice cream one night!

They tout themselves as having the best swimming hole in Texas. Finn and Duncan would agree. Fearless. They loved it. Wanted to do it all day, every day.

Aunt Frankie brought s’mores fixings. The weather was really lovely and cool in the mornings and evenings. It was so unlike Dallas. Perfect.